


Turtleducks in the Park

by allywonderland



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, S.S. Shipping Asami With Every Firebender Who Isn't Mako, Shaosami Week Summer 2012, Shaosami headcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-10
Updated: 2012-12-10
Packaged: 2017-11-20 19:12:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/588706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allywonderland/pseuds/allywonderland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Written for Shaosami Week in August.</i>  A young Asami Sato, out with her mother and family friends, finds a baby turtle-duck in the park.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turtleducks in the Park

**Author's Note:**

> This is based predominantly on [chocolate-diffusion's](http://chocolate-diffusion.tumblr.com/) Shaosami headcanon that the two of them new each other as children, possibly because their parents were friends. So this is completely made up and not based on canon at all, and will very likely be contradicted in some way once further seasons come out, but—oh well. It also includes Chocodi's headcanon that Shaozu played the [morin khuur](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL5bN3bcdfA) as a child, a traditional Mongolian instrument, so if you don't know what it is, you can click the link to hear it live!

            “Here!”

            Shaozu looked up from his morin khuur, the wind blowing his hair in his eyes, and promptly gawked at the tiny little _thing_ that was being shoved in his face.  “What is _that_?”

            “It’s a turtle-duck!” Asami said.  “Just a baby!”

            Shaozu grimaced.  “I know _that_ , but why do you _have_ it?”

            Asami opened her mouth in an “oh” and pondered, as if deciding on the proper answer.  “I found it!” she came up with eventually.  “It’s for you.”

            Shaozu blinked, bewildered, looking at the tiny creature in Asami’s hands.  It cheeped softly, wiggling its feet.

            “I can’t take it,” he said.

            Asami frowned.  “Why not?”

            “I—I’m practising right now.”  He adjusted his hold on the bow and lifted the box of the morin khuur with his legs.  “I’m busy.”

            Asami’s eyes fell and she looked down, clutching the turtle-duck gingerly in her hands.  Shaozu groaned, shoulders slumping, because what was he supposed to do?  She was a little kid—their mothers were always the ones insisting on making them spend time together.

            He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could Asami looked back up, eyes bright and smiling, and asked, “Can I listen?”

            Shaozu’s jaw snapped shut.  He blinked again, even _more_ bewildered (and probably a bit baffled), and said, “Sure?”

            “Okay!”  Asami grinned, folding her legs gracefully underneath her and sitting on the park grass, still clutching the baby turtle-duck in her hands tenderly.  He gaped at her, but after a moment of her smiling cheerfully at him he shrugged, returning to his instrument.

            Once he had shaken himself from his stupor he shook his head and adjusted the box in his lap, fixed his hold on the bow in his right hand, and returned to playing.  His fingers fumbled on the two strings before he was able to find the notes and rhythm in his head, but soon he was playing with surety and determination.  Every time a note fell flat or sharp in his ears he stopped and started again, making the minute adjustments to the angle and position of his fingers on the strings, his grip on the bow, altering the tone and timbre.  He did his best to focus and ignore Asami, who sat absorbed, watching him with rapt attention, and eventually his mind filled with the thrum of the morin khuur.  Soon he even forgot about the baby turtle-duck.

            When next he glanced up Asami had her knees tucked in tightly beneath her chin with her arms, less elegance and more childish little girl (the childish little three year old girl he knew).  The turtle-duck chick (right, he remembered that) was asleep at her feet, twitching occasionally.  Looking over and across the park he saw his mother, still talking animatedly with Asami’s, laughing and smiling brightly.

            Setting down the bow gently, he stretched, circling his wrists after the extended practice.

            “I’m still confused about the turtle-duck.”

            Asami cocked her head at him, then looked down at the sleeping turtle-duck and toed it with one foot.  “I just found it.”

            “Yeah, but where?” He set the morin khuur carefully down on the ground, the bow on top of the box, and slid over to Asami to inspect the turtle-duck with her.  “And... why?”

            “It’s cute!  It reminded me of you.”

            Shaozu pursed his lips and titled his head.  “But it looks nothing like me.”

            “Yes it does!”  Asami insisted, scooping it up against its protests and shoving it in his face again.  “It has a swirly brown spot on its head, just like your hair!”

            He made a face and kept himself from saying something.  “Okay, that’s nice, but _where_ did you find it?”

            “Oh.”  Asami lowered her arms and looked down at the baby turtle-duck as it shook its feathers out.  “I just found it.”

            “Where was it?”

            “By the pond?”

            “Was it _in_ the pond?”

            “I can’t remember!”

            “Did you take it _out_ of the pond?”

            “ _It wasn’t in the pond_!”

            Asami shrieked, face flushed, and flung her arms up—and, consequently, tossed the little turtle-duck into the air.  It let out a high-pitched, indignant chirp and flapped its wings before falling back down into Asami’s frantic, outstretched hands.  As she was checking it Shaozu heard an equally indignant and substantially angrier squawk behind him, and he turned, hesitant, just in time to see what he could only assume was the baby’s mother lunging towards him.

            And that’s how Asami and Shaozu ended up running terrified to their mothers from an angry turtle-duck.


End file.
